House panel OKs Net gambling bill
Declan McCullagh Former Senior Writer
Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. You can e-mail him or follow him on Twitter as declanm. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money column for CBS News' Web site.
A House of Representatives committee has approved a second version of an anti-Internet gambling bill, clearing the way for a floor debate and vote in the near future. On May 6, the Judiciary committee for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act, and the Financial Services committee followed suit on Tuesday.
Because the two versions differ and each has strong supporters, it's likely that any floor debate would include hotly contested amendments. The Financial Services version does not include criminal penalties, does not immunize Internet service providers against liability, and relies exclusively on federal, not state, regulators for enforcement.